We’ve seen a lot over the years at Newcastle United, but I have NEVER seen anything quite like that.
With a minute left we were 2-0 down (honestly, you read that right!), but TWO stoppage time goals from Florian Lejeune has somehow earned us a point in a game we played awfully in for 93 of the 94 minutes. You couldn’t make it up!
The irony of it all is that we hadn’t had a shot on target up until Lejeune’s late double – a player who hadn’t score a single goal for Newcastle United in 44 appearances until tonight.
We were pretty awful all over the pitch and looked set to give Everton arguably their easiest 3 points of the season – but 90 seconds of utter madness has changed all of that, keeping our unbeaten run going in the most unlikely of fashions.
Here are the two goals:
The first half was a frustrating watch. Everton were pressing in numbers, meaning we had the chance to counter and get in behind midfield with a bit of quality and composure, but both Matty and Sean Longstaff were struggling to find our front three.
Almiron was lively and by far our best player and biggest threat in the first 45, but Atsu was anonymous and the ball wasn’t sticking to Joelinton.
Then, Everton’s opener arrived. The ball fell to Bernard 30 yards out, Fernandez got dragged out, lost his man Moise Kean and saw the Italian striker latch on to a clever lobbed through ball as a result. The 19-year-old’s first touch wasn’t great, but we didn’t react quick enough. His shot was straight at Dubravka, but the Slovakian got under it, with Hayden’s attempt to block appearing to leave him unsighted.
1-0 to Everton at the break and a scoreline we deserved for a shoddy first half display that lacked spark in attack or security at the back.
In the second half, the trend continued. Everton were in control and creating all of the openings while we struggled to string more than a few passes together – never mind emerge into the final third.
Then, Everton’s second arrived. Lascelles tried to intercept a Digne pass but overcommitted, allowing Dominic Calvert-Lewin to roll him and fire past Dubravka.
At this point the game felt over and, in truth, we showed no sign of coming back into it.
Bruce brought on THREE defenders (Krafth, Schar, Lejeune) for Joelinton, Atsu and Clark (who had been booked) – a move that baffled many as if we were accepting defeat – but little did we know what was about to unfold.
Lejeune’s first was an impressive overhead kick, although it felt like nothing but a consolation at the time. I’d say Everton then got twitchy, but I don’t think many inside Goodison believed there was time for another – especially when we’d looked so unlikely to score for the entire 90 up until this point.
Then, with us quickly regaining possession from the restart and lumping the ball forward, a goal mouth scramble saw Lejeune bundle it over the line once again!
The referee signalled that the ball had gone over the line and the away end erupted, leaving Everton fans gobsmacked and Jordan Pickford furious – although I don’t know what he was doing trying to save Lejeune’s effort from well behind the line!
A result our performance did not deserve, but it’s a brilliant point and one of the most bonkers finishes to a football match I’ve ever witnessed!
It must be said that we were VERY poor all over the pitch tonight, badly missing Carroll’s presence, Saint-Maximin’s spark and Shelvey’s creativity, yet we’ve managed to come away with another precious result.
The draw sends us up to 30 points and 7 clear of the drop zone, maintaining our unbeaten ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup clash at St James’ Park
Next up, Oxford United!
Jordan Pickford is a giant arsed Mackem Clown who will cost England at the very least a semi-final in the Euros if Southgate continues to pick him.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – bit harsh!!. He’s my favourite PL player tonight mate … or is that Lejeune ? – who gives a **** – 4 points off 5th man ?????????
Sharpy17(Quote)
That was me being kind to Pickford Sharpy 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Now for Ando:
He dun dat dare doh didn’t e. He could have dun betta wid dat doh.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Just watched Brucie’s Sky after match interview.
The Delight-O-Meter stays at only 1.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – I find that a good thing though. Someone like Pardew would take credit for a inspired substitution.
I this Bruce is genuinely displeased at how we are playing at the moment – relieved to be picking up the points – but would love some of his injured players back to try and have more of an impact on the game.
I guess Bruce feels a lot like most of the fans really.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Ok Ando, can we have your summary of Sean Longstaff’s performance so far?
” E dun dat do dare,
E cudda dun betta wid dat doh dare as well,
Fer me, anyway.”
Do I really get paid for this bumbling nonsense?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sharpy: I am not sure you are getting what I am saying about Brucie. DELIGHTED is his crutch word that he uses a lot and I was just saying he uses that word lot 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
How the hell we have got 30 points I have no clue. But we are staying up. That’s what matters.
As I have said a few times, I still think we should sack Brucie in the summer as he will eventually take us down. But we wont sack him. Fatty didn’t even sack Pardew and then they appointed Ugly John FFS.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Bruce is probably embarrassed. I know I am. We’ve turned into a cross between Wimbledon and Stoke under Pulis.
Stuart79(Quote)
Im not sure how many points it will be to stay up this season.
We currently sit 13th on 30pts – 4pts off 5th but only 7pts from the relegation spots.
It’s a crazy league this season. Sheff Utd and Wolves have taken lots of credit for how well they have played this season and rightly so – but we find ourselves 3 and 4 Pts behind them.
We might just get away with it this season. But this needs fixing, coz our forwards didn’t turn up again last night.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Still in shock tbh
kimtoon(Quote)
Bentelab to play against Oxford which is fine but Bruce is talking about Saint also playing. That’s someone who I wouldn’t play. Just leave him and another weeks recovery will do him just fine. If Atsu can’t perform against Oxford At home then He’s not good enough. Don’t rush Saint. We do however need someone who can play as a striker
Stuart79(Quote)
I would play Saint at centre forward against Oxford , and drop Joelinton.
sidekick(Quote)
Sidekick – What about playing Joelinton at left back? Maybe that’s his specialist position…
Stuart79(Quote)
Olivier Bernard put the goalie gloves in the T Rex 🙂 🙂 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So when is Southgate going to wake up and drop Pickford? I have been saying for at least 2 years that he is a mistake waiting to happen. The Everton fans know it and if Gareth could get himself north of Watford now and again he would see it too.
It is Joe Hart revisited. It took Pep dumping him for the punditry to see he was ****. He dives over the ball as it passes him to make it look like he is trying and nobody said anything about it. Maybe the pundits will now see Pickford’s shortcomings.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Wolves has a Liverpool banana skin written all over it. Mainly because they will be coming down from the Man U game.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think it’s entirely unlikely we will be buying a striker this window. I’d be interested to hear peoples views after the window. We’re told Jabba have Bruce the go ahead to strengthen. It’s likely we will end up with Bentelab and a left back imo.
Stuart79(Quote)
Is it time for Longstaff the Taller to spend some time on the bench or in the U23s? Maybe we were watching him last year with black and white coloured glasses and seeing decent performances as good? Hoping we had found the new Gerrard, one of our own? Was he ever really THAT good?
Maybe this is what he is and he flattered to deceive. I hope he is better than he is showing at the moment.
Olly gave him a 4 and that is not the first 4 for him this season.
Our midfield has been overrun many times this season and not just when Slowjo Shelvey has been in there. Sean has not got forward and has not put his stamp on games. Perhaps it is the tactics and having a bank of 5 protected by a bank of 4. I don’t know.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sean’s not been right all season. Not sure why. Maybe it’s his brother putting in very good performances. Someone mentioned this to me last summer and I laughed at the idea that Matty would be better than Sean.
Weird night last night. I woke up laughing at the ridiculous nature of it all. Especially as we’d played with only 9 men. Joelinton and Atsu are so so poor. They’re an embarrassment.
georgio(Quote)
I still cannot believe what I saw last night… 93 mins of turgid, dismal cra.p and then boom, 2 goals in a minute. Wow…. and another defender scores. Unbelievable.
Sean Longstaff is getting about £600 a week, compared to the 10s of thousands the others are on… it could have an impact on his performance…
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Time for England to drop Pickford. I am usually right when I get a feeling about a player. Rooney, Wilshere, now Pickford and I have thought this for at least 2 years. I never thought Rooney was a bad player, in fact I always thought he was a great player until his legs went. That’s the problem though. The ex-player pundits cannot see when their mate loses that extra 5% that made them special. Same with some Managers – Mr. Roy.
Pickford was never that great so if the pundits defend him they are idiots.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The Sun would go firkin bonkers if Pickford was behind the goal line for a goal in an England Euros or WC game. Remember when Beckham got sent off for England at the World Cup. They almost had their previous golden child incarcerated in the Tower of London. Nobody has really mentioned the giant arsed Mackem’s mistakes, of which there have been many.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The pundits seem mesmerized that Jordan can kick a ball 70 yards, mostly out of touch and has good reflexes. They miss the bits about dominating the six yard box and coming for crosses and not flapping at every corner.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sorry 🙂 Pickford’s performance last night has shown him to be everything I said about him so I am reveling in it 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
DT: the current version of Sean Longstaff is only worth 600 quid a week 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I hope Lee Ryder is right about us looking at Martinez. I watched him at Atlanta with Miggy and they were a good partnership. He has a bit of the Van Nistlerooy about him in that he is always in the right place at the right time. Obviously not as good as Van Nis but he has that knack.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Do you know that Van Nistlerooy never scored a goal in the PL from outside the 18 yard box?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
OK: I am going to get back to Shelvey after a couple of weeks thinking. He cannot play in a midfield 2, he is too slow. If we play 2 banks of 4 to defend, he is next to useless because he has nobody to pass to, unless we play Gayle who is always injured now anyway. So, what’s the point? We are not set up to play to his strengths and we are wasting his obvious talents.
When Shearer had his operations Sir Bobby got him Bellamy to do the running. Unless Brucey gets a defensive mid (Hayden?) AND a runner to help out Shelvey we may as well sell him.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
AARRRGGHH….
Now Footbal365 (owned by Sky) are saying Liverpool are “CHAMPIONS ELECT”.
No they are not.
When a US President gets elected in November the former President stays on for 3 months until the inauguration in January. That is why the new President is called ELECT because he has been ELECTED but is not in OFFICE.
Liverpool have not been elected to anything. They are not Champions Elect until they have the points to say they are. They have been ELECTED to nothing.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Bruce said he didn’t call on Shelvey last night because he isn’t quite right. Then why the hell was he on the bench?
Groucho(Quote)
Against Chelsea Saint was cleanly not fit so I agree he should have more time to recover. However anybody but Atsu please. I am concerned that Bruce seems inclined to play players who should be given more time to recover.
Groucho(Quote)
He should have been left back in Germany.
sidekick(Quote)
Georgio
I was told that the lads in the academy all claimed that Matty was a better player than his brother.
Still remember watching their uncle playing 5 a side as a seven year old and he was some player .
Matty reminds me of him.
sidekick(Quote)
These Journos are supposed to be so smart – Red Brick University and upper middle class, even OxBridge – and yet they have no clue. Champions Elect FFS!!!
Rotocism. I think I would rather have a pint with Ugly John or Mike Dean.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Just for the hell of it I will repeat my conversation with me Mam when Carver was appointed NUFC Manager.
I said that Ugly John was appointed NUFC manager last week soon after his 50th Birthday. She said NEVER, I thought he was older than Sir Bobby. At least 70.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Pickled walnut with hair !
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think it’s a few things with Longstaff. I think firstly the Man Utd interest has effected him. Secondly I think it’s natural for a young player to have a strong start then drop off and thirdly I believe he wants a new, improved contract which the club have said no to. I understand where’s he’s coming from. If the club rate him at £50m which is what they told Man Utd then why are they paying him so little? That must be hard to swallow for him. But then again, I reckon most players at NUFC feel disenfranchised at one time or another by the people above them.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart man, even the top man at NUFC must feel disenfranchised. Karren Brady gets 2 million, Levy 4 million. Wor Litte Lee Charnley gets 300k. And that is including bonuses. His basic is 150k.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And I don’t think Bruce is here for the money either.
I think he does want to manage a club that he loves.
He has plenty of money from what I have seen with him balancing beer cans on his belly standing up in the Bahamas.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Come on, Eric! Who’s hasn’t done that?! ?
Stuart79(Quote)
Should we send Lejuene to Man U for injury time?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Man U are going to get slaughtered for this performance aren’t they? They don’t even have defenders who score 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Isn’t Burney like 15 miles from Manchester? A derby!!!
The commentator here (English) is acting like this is Fergie’s Man U and saying on 90 minutes they can still come back. Thi sis OGS’s Man U. Shyte players with a shyte Manager.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Is Harry McGuire Man U’s JoeLinton. 80 million 🙂 🙂 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Is Sanchez Man U’s JoeLinton. They didn’t get him for free, they swapped Mikitarian for him who cost them 37 million and are still paying 150k a week in wages for Alexis even though he is injured at Inter.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – Jamie Carra got slaughtered off Keane at the weekend for suggesting Ole wasn’t pedigree enough to manage Man Utd.
Keane blaming recruitment and saying Ole needs more time, more windows to get the players in he wants.
Carra saying that none of the players have improved.
All I know is that this is by far and away the worst Man Utd side I’ve seen – it’s truly awful – and they were the biggest spenders in the summer.
They haven’t bought good players – but Ole isn’t good enough either.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Is Martial Man U’s Joelinton? He cost 50 million and looks about as likely to score as Joe.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Is Matic Man Us JoeLinton? He cost 35 mil FFS and my dead granny is faster than him.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sharpy: I put the Man U 98 team up much earlier on this thread. Have a quick look and compare 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sharpy: we all know that Ole is not capable enough to manage Man U. Long may it continue.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Been watching Man U and forgot about WEST HAM.
They are really in the ****.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Moyes just gave up on Sunderland when they went down but he also kept West Ham up. Hard to say what will happen. I know what I want to happen!!! And I know what Kimtoon wants to happen 🙂 🙂 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It’s rumoured that we have £30m to spend this window. If we assume that what Charnley said is correct in his interview last year then we should have circa £50-£60m a year to spend on players based on what’s generated and what are fixed costs are given a wages to turnover ratio of 60%. So if we spend nothing this window which I imagine will happen that should mean we have circa £90m to spend in the summer. Sounds like a lot but considering we have quite a few players out of contract it could be spread reasonably thinly. But as we have heard recently from the club and also Bruce – its “quality not quantity” these days…
Stuart79(Quote)
Outrageously there are only 11 points between 5th and 19th in the PL. That’s how a league should be in my opinion. That close!
Stuart79(Quote)
Not surprised by Seans performances this season as I thought he was pretty well over hyped last season. For the life of me I couldn’t see what the fuss was about.
I thought the same about Aarons early on a got slated for saying as much at the time. Matty seems to have a bit more about him if you ask me. Glad to see the young fellas getting a go tho. You will never know unless you give them a chance.
Aussie(Quote)
Finally someone in the media said Pickford is a problem. Of all people it was Martin Keown who is an idiot, but I will gladly agree this time. He said that Jordan is “frantic” and should calm down before the Euros.
He cost Everton the game and if anything shows his lack of positioning it is that he was behind the goal line for the second goal. He is just as bad for crosses. The modern trend is for taller keepers and I am not sure if Pickford is much about 6 foot.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Aussie is probably right on Sean Longstaff. Him coming into the team coincided with us playing better football but there wasn’t a drop off when he got injured. I still think he was a bit better last season but I didn’t really look at his performances with much of a critical eye. He is a Geordie and I wanted (want) him to succeed and for that reason I think I let myself believe the hype. I was never effusive in praise of him so he couldn’t have been THAT good because there is nothing I would like more than to see a local lad playing well at NUFC.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
There are some strange things happening this season:
1. How the hell do we have 30 points?
2. How are Man U 5th? If you look at their team and ignore the shirt and fees you would say they are mid-table cloggers. Martial FFS. They paid double what McGuire is worth and that is giving him the benefit of the doubt.
3. Everytime I watch Brighton or Norwich they play decent football but lose.
4. Sometimes Man City look like a Pep team and other times they don’t. Has he overcoached them? Is he too intense and after a while you tune him out like a kid always seeking attention?
5. How the hell did Arsenal and Man U get into the states they are in? I honestly don’t think I would take any of Arsenal’s defenders over what we have at NUFC.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Do the Premier League have any checks for Referees? They have all this technology that can show how far they run, they can check their body mass index and even % of body fat. They have heat maps for where players run, they could do the same for Refs.
But who was that fat middle aged man in the too tight black top yesterday who was always 10 yards behind the play? Ah yes, Jon Moss. One look and you know he has a convertible in the car park trying to regain his youth and probably to match the people he is officiating. He is too old, too slow and too fat to be a modern Ref. He has bigger t!ts than my ex-wife and is not afraid to show them in his too-tight top.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Wonder of wonders – A Chronicle reporter has actually done his job. Sean McCormick got in touch with the Bild Shalke correspondent to ask about Bentaleb. It seems there have been a few misunderstandings but he also seems very stubborn. Reading between the lines he didn’t get along with at least one manager and his suspension was due to that.
He was suspended for not turning up to a game to support the team when he was injured. Bentaleb says his wife was in the hospital, so fair enough I say. They suspended him again for not turning up to a language class. He was not the only one who didn’t turn up. Should not be a problem at NUFC as he was at Spurs from a young age and his English should be OK.
I think we are on a no lose here as he seems to have valid reasons for his actions and we are having an almost free look. If the player is good enough you can put up with some antics. Look at Bellamy, although Souness did try to strangle him 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sean Longstaff is a good player, but I agree he’s not been as effective as last season.
Maybe that’s coz he hasn’t fully recovered from his injury at the start of the season.
But I think most likely is the inconsistency of his midfield partner.
He and Hayden were an excellent partnership last season, but have rarely been played together this season.
I do think when players are paired up, they form an understanding which can complement each other.
I’m not trying to make excuses for him. I just don’t think you become poor all of a sudden.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy
My issue with him is that he seems a reactionary player that waits for the game to come to him. I don’t see him demanding the ball or even attempting to control the play.
Saying that we don’t really have anyone other than maybe Shelvey that does that either.
Aussie(Quote)
I’m pretty sure that if we get Valentino Lazaro then we wont be in for Jarred Bowen, too similar.
Rose looks a good idea, but where’s the striker?
PremAndUp(Quote)
Aussie – maybe that’s down to partnerships again though mate.
Alongside Hayden, he could be sure that Hayden covers more the defensive side of things, allowing him to be more offensive.
I think alongside Shelvey he definitely doesn’t have that and would probably be seen as the more defensive one – which isn’t his strength.
Playing him alongside Matty is tough too coz I think the big brother mentality becomes a distraction.
Or maybe the honeymoon period of breaking into the first team is over.
I do think that his partnership with Hayden was a big reason for his good performances though.
I think back to Drinkwater and Kante in Leicester’s title winning midfield. Kanté was and is a better midfielder – but if you look at Drinkwaters stats for that season – he was excellent.
Drinkwater suffered when that partnership broke up, but Kanté being the better midfielder carried on playing well.
Hayden is still pretty consistent for us – and makes Shelvey look better imo. But I thought his partnership with Longstaff was the best I’ve seen at NUFC in a long time.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Lazaro fits our usual profile. It is either someone out of favour or who has a contract situation. Joelinton was an exception but who knows what the real fee was. We also see made up numbers for the fee for Almiron as well as there were supposedly add ons.
Lazaro seems like one of our deals where we are hoping it will work out and taking a punt. His Agent seems a bit dodgy as well so that fits. Who was that Agent we did a lot of business with that Sheppard liked and sent us Amdy Faye? Willy Mc-somebody? He was a proper used-car salesman. He was also the Agent for that Cardiff lad who died in the plane crash (or maybe it was his son, but Willy was involved there and there were rumours of a dodgy deal).
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And just buy Martinez. I don’t see anybody else out there and he has to be better than Muto. Andy and Dwight are always injured so get a bloody striker in. Gayle will be off in the summer anyway and we need a striker NOW.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I have watched Martinez for Atlanta and he is an instinctive finisher. That’s what we don’t have at the moment. Gayle is like that in The Championship but somehow it doesn’t translate to the PL.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
There actually have been some decent players from MLS. Donovan, Dempsey, McBride at Fulham was pretty good (better than we have at the moment, anyway). I think Miggy might turn our to be the best of the lot so buy his mate.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Has any team ever gone down with 30 points and 14 games to go? Sounds improbable but this is NUFC. It would take an Ugly John type run.
If we are in the drivers seat for Lazano it is probably because we are perhaps willing to commit to a purchase in the summer. Does this mean we have no money to spend or are we keeping it for another deal? Ryder did a Q and A and seems to think we have money. I don’t really trust Wor Lee. He can’t have covered NUFC for 30 years and have absolutely no contacts, can he? He is a bad writer but he must get some information, surely?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
SKY SPORTS NEWS have an Italian Journalist on now saying Lazano agreed the NUFC move an hour ago and they are finalizing the details.
1.5 mil Euro loan fee with buy option of 23 mil Euro.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Nickson seems like he is getting his act together. I don’t really know much about our 2 loans except that they both went for over 20 million Euros so someone must have thought they were good at some point. Bentelab went to the Bundesliga in 2016 when 20 million was a lot of money. And you don’t know with Lazano because of Conte who has history of freezing players out or a player not fitting his system. He’s only been at Inter a few months and cost over 20 million. Better than loaning Shefli Fcn Kuki or whatever his name is. Or Doumbia.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I know nothing of Lazaro so don’t know if it’s a good move or not ??♂️
Inter paid a decent fee to get him, but then he hasn’t played much for them and they are now happy to let him go – maybe that’s coz he’s not Contes man.
We don’t have a right winger as such, so it’s arguably an improvement to the squad but an unknown quantity for me. I guess the loan fee is pretty risk free though.
If we have £23m to spend in the summer, I’d give it to Hull for Bowen though.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: Atsu is supposed to be a winger. I wonder what Georgio thinks? Addition by subtraction of Atsu at the very least 🙂
He’s a bloody frustrating player. He looked OK for a couple of games and then went back to where he started. SELL, SELL, SELL.
Eric Sykes(Quote)